James Olley: What a surprise, FIFA are the innocents and we’re to blame

So it turns out the organisation investigating themselves over allegations of wrongdoing found themselves innocent. Who’d have thought?

FIFA’S report is to football justice what the Warren Report was to the John F Kennedy assassination. The gaping holes in Hans-Joachim Eckert’s 42-page summary are not evidence of corruption in itself but none of the key questions have been asked.

Why did FIFA change from a single bid process to deciding the 2018 and 2022 hosts simultaneously? Even this whitewash of a report admits this “made the voting process subject to collusion and vote-trading”.

Why was Mohamed bin Hammam, a former FIFA Executive Committee member at the heart of Qatar’s 2022 bid before disappearing in disgrace after being found guilty of bribery, allowed to turn down interview requests?

How can England be criticised for a sponsorship totalling $55,000 while a remarkably similar payment of $1.8million by Qatar be deemed “not to affect the integrity of the bidding process as a whole”?

Time and again, individual instances of probable corruption are dismissed with that phrase. How many small instances must be recognised before it does affect the bigger picture? The report comments: “The main challenge with regard to corruption is proving it.” It is harder still if you don’t bother asking the right questions.